In the medical field, it is often necessary to manipulate fluid flow through conduits by opening, closing and diverting fluid flow to transport or mix fluids from various sources. The most common example of this occurs in medicine where a fluid transfer line such as an intra-arterial line, intravenous line, or intrathecal line, etc. is used to either infuse medicament (medication and/or fluid) into a patient or draw fluids (blood for testing) from the patient. Often, a single intravenous line will need to be the simultaneous port for both withdrawal and introduction of multiple fluids.
A common way to accomplish this is through the use of medical stopcocks which are most commonly of the “3 way type” or less commonly “4 way type”. These inventions allow ports to be opened or closed as need be to allow or disallow the flow of a given medicament or to allow direct access to the fluid system for the above stated reasons. Often they may require several hands to simultaneously manipulate the valve and a syringe or another connected device. Such devices are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,914,495, 7,152,845, 5,443,453, and 6,874,664.
A common problem with the use of these medical stopcocks is that during use, they often allow an open pathway into the vessel or bodily space, which increases the risk for contamination. For example, in one of the embodiments described above, the cap may be taken off the stopcock valve and be placed on an unclean surface before being replaced onto the stopcock. Such an action would clearly subject the port, and thereby the intravenous device and the patient, to contamination. In order to aid in sterility, ease of use and efficiency, improvements are needed.